Washing wool and other textile materials



June 18. 1929.

E. C. DUHAMEL WASHING WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed March '7,1925 2 Sheets-Sheet .1

member I DL/AameZ 2 9 June 18, 1929. E. c. DUHAMEL WASHING WOOL ANDOTHER TEXTILE MATERIALS Filed March '7', 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PatentedJune is, 1929.

amass ciuanns Bummer, or ROUBAIX, FRANCE. wasnmd WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILEMATERIALS.

Application aiea March 7,

The present invention relates to improve ments connected with thewashing of wool and other textile fully described.

p 5 It has been proposed, heretofore, to circulate the liquids employedin the opposite direction to the movement of the material undertreatment, in consequence whereof they are caused to pass throughseveral baths in which the ratio of the quantity of impurities to thequantity of bath. liquid progressively increases. On the other hand, ithas also been proposed to utilize apparatus for washing and cleaningwoolin which the wool is propelled mechanically through a number ofwashing vats, each followed by a press; but such apparatus, as'is alsothe case withthe so-called leviathans,requires that the liquid whichgradually becomes more. and more dirty, be

transferred from time to timev from one vat to another, therebyoccasioning interruption of the operation. In order to reduce the numberofsuch interruptions as much as possible, it has been customary toutilize washing vats containing large volumes of water; but thisexpedient involves the disadvantage that the soap, which is introducedin great quantity into the aforesaid vats, is absorbed, du e to itsprolonged stay therein, by the impurities which are present and, at thesame time,

changes its physical state, with; a resultant decrease in its detersivepower.-

This invention involves an'improved washing system or installationcomprising a plurality of units each embodying a vat or other soakingdevice and an extractor individual thereto; such. system working on theabovementioned counter-current principle and being designed to overcome/the necessity for transferring the bath liquids from one vat to the nextand, hence, the consequent stoppages, which were unavoidable atintervals in the known procedures.

The essential feature of the improved system is the fact that the tanksorvats which are located in advance of the extractors or presses are ofvery small volume; that is to say, they contain only so much liquid asis necessary for saturating the material; and that each vat is keptfilled by the liquid expelled by the press belonging to the vat whichimmediately follows it. In this way, the washing is carried out in bathsof constantor unchanging composition, and the impurities which aredischarged very rapidly from the system remain, accordingly, only for afew materials, as hereinafter "1925, Serial in. 13,802, and in Francelarch 11, 1924.

minutes in contact with the detersive agent, wh ch,'of course, is a mosteconomical proceeding as regards the latter. According to the invention,the result desired is accomplished primarily by reason of the fact thatWool enters the system discharges the squeezed-out liquid into thedrain, whereas the liquids extracted by the other presses are deliveredin each case directly to the vat'containing the next dirtier water inorder.

In the accompanying drawings:

igures 1 and 2 are diagrams representing the circulation of the water inseries and in parallel, respectively; the arrows designatingthedirection of flow, and the presses being indicated by dots aiid thevats by vertical. lines; I

Fig. 3 is a plan View, niatic in character, ing the invention;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section thereof.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the circulation of the bath liquids may takeplace in series, or in parallel, as described hereinafter in connectionwith Fig. 3; and, if desired, the op eration can be so regulated, duetothe construction and arrangement of the piping system and other partsof the apparatus, as likewise explained, as toenable the circulation totake place in parallel in the first or upper stages and in series in thelast or bottom stage. In the figures mentioned, the circulation of theliquids is entirely in series in the first case, and entirely inparallel in the second case, with six and three pressing or extractingoperations, respectively, so that twice as much liquid is used in thesecond case as in the first. The wool or other textile material to betreated enters the apparatus at the bottom stage in a dry state and inribbon form, while the liquid enters at the top stage, the, twoproceeding in counter-current. The apparatus represented is of theduplex type; that is to say, the vats are arranged in pairs, in effect,one at the side of the other, and each separate vat can be mountedinsuch a way that the corresponding vats of each stage are placed side byside in the system. The bath liquids will then travel through each halfof the appa ratus in the manner explained above, either in parallel orin series.

In the embodiment shown in Fi s. 3 and 4, the vat A, which is the onewhere the li( uids enter, is of the same volume as is usual somewhatdiagramof an apparatus e1nbodyfor the press associated with the vatwhere the known installations, i. e., about 300 liters, and the cleanliquid from this vat cannot cause any considerable adsorption of soap.All the necessary soapis introduced hereinto, the relatively-large sizeof the vat insuring a stabilization of the temperature and of thepercentage of detersive agents. This percentage is so regulated that thewater is almost non-lathery on arriving at the lower istagewhich servesfor the entry of the wool.

There are two presses 1 and 2 associated with this vat, and beneath themare arranged trays or collectors 1 and 2 which catch the liquidextracted by the presses and deliver it to the vats B and C of themiddle stage, as hereinafter explained; and because of that fact, and ofthe fact that the presses and their collectors are independent of eachother and are separately supplied with the wool, it will beapparent-that v'at A, while actually a single vat as regards itsstructure, is nevertheless a duplex vat in its action or effect. 1

A .roller B (Fig. 4) arranged in frontvof the .presses 1 and-2 of vat Amay be employedto compress the wool beforev it reaches said presses, sothat it carries less water}; ith

it. This presents hardly any'ditticulty because the water is clean (andthat is necessary) when the extracted water of said vat circulates tothe middlevstage, as shown in Fig. 1. There are'two vats B and C in themiddle stage, as previously stated, and two vats D and E in the lower orbottom stage where the wool. eiiters,-all' connected together by piping;p're's'ses 3,4, 5 and-'6 being associated with the respective vats. a

'In' the construction illustrated, pipes t and t lead from thetrays orcollectors 2 and 1 to the vats B and C, connection being made by meansof passages b" and b, the latter of which can-be opened and closed by asuitable plug (not shown); and'tl ere is a gate 1" or the like in thechannel A between the two trays which is opened for se--ries-circul-ation and closed for circulation-in-. parallel.

which are fed with wool from vats B and C,

Similarly, the presses 3 and 4,

is connected by a pipe i with the vat C of that stage, as well as by thepipe t with the vat E of the lower stage. The trays 5 and 6' are emptiedthrough the pipes t and 25 into outlet channels D *andE which dischargealternatively into drains C and C and for that purpose said channels arefurnished with plug or other outlet valves 6,

6 b, 6 Finally, pipes t and t, are also provided for feeding the liquidsextracted by the presses 3 and 5-to vats C and E, respecv tively; andthere is a gate or other valve r in the connecting channel Bbetween thevats B and C.-

' Circulation in series throughout the entire apparatus is effected byopening the gate valve 0' in channel A and closingthe passages b, 6 ,12The liquids extracted by the two presses 1 and 2 will then flow throughchannel A and pipe t into vat B which, as

"tated, has a constant level, and which feeds the wool or other textilematerial under treatment to press 3; the liquid extracted by said pressbeing delivered to vat C by pipe t The press 4 receives the strands ofwool leaving vat C and delivers the extracted liquid through pipe t intovat D; and the latter feeds press 5 which, in its turn,-discharges itsliquid through pipe t into the'other lowerstage vat E. This vat E is thelast vat of the series, and it feeds the press 6, the extracted liquidfrom which empties through pipe t into channel E and thence into thedrain or drains. 1 In parallel-working gate r'-is closed and passa es 6b and b are opened, whereupon 2 and 1 separately supply the vats B andC- immediately below them through the pipes t and t and the presses 3and lied by said vats supply the vats E and D through the.

through pipes 15". and into the channels E" and D and thence into thedrains. The upper ends of thepassages' t and 15 should occupy asufficiently elevated position to enable the liquids to escape bygravity through pipes t 'and t when the plugs of passages .12 and b areremoved.

Besides the all-parallel and all-series circulations just described, itis also possible Po operate the apparatus in amanner to obtain acirculation which is partlyin parallel and partly in series. This can beeffected readily by simply closing gate 1* in connecting channel A andopening passages 12 and b, passages and b remaining closed. 'Workingwill then take place in parallel in the upper stage, and in series inthe middle and lower stages in accordance with the operations asexplained above in connection with the first or upper stage of theparallel circulation and the middle and lower sta es of the seriescirculation, respectively. n other words, the liquids from presses 1 and2 will pass through channel A and passages b and b into pipes t and tand thence into vats C and B; and the press 3 associated with vat B willdeliver the extractedliquid throughpipe t to vat C, from'which it willpass, together with the liquid from vat G, to press circulationproceedsas follows: The presses pipes t and t. Finally, the presses 6 and 5,

' which are fed by vats E and D, empty 4 and thence through passage 6"and pipe t to vat D, and then to and through press 5,

pipe t, vat E, press 6, pipe t and channel E to the drain.

As the wool or other material to be washed enters the vats D and E in adry state, these vats will empty more quickly'than the others; and it isto avoid this that the above-described parallel-series Circulation isemployed. By adopting the series-circulation in the bottom stage, onlyhalf as much liquid is needed asis required for circulation in paralleland, moreover, the detersive agent is completely exhausted because itmeets twice, one time after the other, the material in its dirtieststate.

It will be apparent, of course, that in the installation described, thecirculation of the liquids betweenthe little vats can also be carriedout in such a way as to utilize overflows which collect the liquidsqueezedout by the presses. These overflows are indicated at P, P P andP, which lead, respectively,

- from vat A to vat B, from vat C to vat D (by way of connectingchannelB and gate 7'), from vat D to outlet channel D, and from vat Eto outletchannel E. Of the two vats B and C of the middle stage, the lattercontains the dirtier liquid, whereas the vat D on the same side in thelower stage contains liquid which is less dirty than the other lowerstage vat E. Pure water is introduced into vat D through a pipe M, andsome liquidcan also be introduced into vat E (after having beenwithdrawn from the apparatus and subjected tov centrifuging) through asecond pipe N. a

The two drains C and G for evacuating I the liquids dischar ed from theapparatus-by way of the. outlet 0 annels D and E are in tended toreceive, respectively, the liquids which, on being centrifuged, producean oil 7 that can be reused for oiling. and the remaining liquids. Thepassages b and 6 empty into drain C, and the passages b and 7) emptyinto drain C; the discharge being controlled by plugging the properpassages.

I claim as my invention 1. A process of washing, wool and other textilematerials with detersive agents, comprising the steps of subjecting thematerial to a succession of very brief and very rapid 'soakingtreatments with just enough detersive liquid to saturate the material,extracting the liquid from the material after each soaking operation,and transferring the liquid obtained at each extracting operation toantextilematerials, comprising the steps of soakoperation; andcirculating the liquid in series a through certain of the baths, thecirculation of the material proceeding in parallel and in the oppositedirection to the liquid.

4. A process according to claim 3, in which the circulation of the bathliquids in series occurs at least in the lower stage. I

5. A process of washing wool and other "ing the material in a successionofpairs of vats each containing detersive liquid; transferring thematerial from one pair of vats to the next at the conclusion of eachsoaking, operation; and circulating the liquid in series through certainof the vats, the circula tion of the material proceeding in. paralleland in the opposite direction to the liquid.

6. Duplex apparatus for washing wool and other textile materials,comprising a succession of pairs of soaking vats for containin detersiveliquid; pressing means associate with each pair of vats to expel liquidfrom the steeped material; means for transferring the material from thevats to z the assoc1ated pressing means; a system of piping intercon-.necting the vats and pressingmeans; and

valve means associated with thpiping d iqui v tem for selectivelycirculating the therethrough-in series or in parallel.

7. A process of washing wool and other textile materials withfroth-forming deter: 4

s ve agents, comprising the steps of subjecting the material to asuccession of very brief and very'rapid soaking treatments with justsuflicient detersive liquid to'saturate the material, extracting theliquid from the material. after each soaking operation, and cirl ula theextracted liquids between the baths.

In testimony whereof afiix my signature.

nLI'sEE cHARLEs

